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162
THE TAPROBANIAN.
[December, 1887.
fact that the general’s auxiliaries were of various
foreign races, “men of various lands.”
I take it therefore as most probable that Sena IV.
was a visitor to the Court of Dhanga, whether he
died there or returned, and as 998 A.D. is the year
in which'Dhanga died, Sena IV. must have succeeded
as a boy of twelve to his father’s throne shortly
before that date. According to the Sinhalese trans-
lators he acceded at 992 A.D., which thus corres-
ponds.
Dhanga’s grandmother was Kankuta, a princess of
the Ganga family then dominant in Kalinga, but
I cannot ascertain to what family his mother Karma
Devi belonged. The Queen-Mother of Ceylon was
also of the Kalinga family, and her dissolute son, the
titular king of Ceylon, could not have been kept out
of mischief in a better way, than by attending the
court of Dhanga, the suzerain of his kinsfolk. The
relationship through the Gangas accounts for the
interest Rahila and Dhanga took in the affairs of
Ceylon, and for the aid lent to the Senevi Sena.
What share Rahila took in the affairs of Ceylon is
doubtful, as Chand, who says that his victories
extended to Ceylon, is not a very reliable authority.
It is probable he was mixed up in the civil war,
described in the 51st chapter of the Mahawansa,
stanzas 112 to 129.
Editor.
Killing a dun cow on the Ganga bank.
In Tamil grants there occurs a common impreca-
tion upon any person disputing or cancelling the
grant, that he might “ incur the sin of one who
kills a dun cow on the Ganga bank.” I observe
that Burnell on p. 114 of his South Indian Palaeo-
graphy has stated :—“ In later grants the impreca-
tion often is that the violator of it will incur the
same sin as one who kills a black cow on the banks
of the Ganges.”
In this, however, he makes two slight mistakes,
evidently misled by mistaken interpretations of
Indian pandits, of the modern Brahmanic School.
The word Kenkai or Kankai, it is true, does denote
the Ganges, but it is also the name of the Mahawili
Ganga of Ceylon, and may be applied also to the
Godavari. It is, in fact, a name of any “ river,” par
excellence, and might be translated “ a sacred
river” in this context. The other mistake, treating
karam as black, is more serious, and evidently arose
from regarding it as a Sanskrit word. It is how-
ever always understood by Tamils, whom I have
consulted, as indicating “red-brown,” that is
“ dun,” and is a Dravidian word, found in Sinhalese
as “guru,” red-brown, dun, and in Tamil, karal,
karai, rust, blood, as well as black, and thence
in secondary use a stain, a spot; also kuruti, red
blood : kural, dun, tawny, (as of cattle).
These have not any real relationship with kari,
and kari, blackness, and karu, black.
Karam however is a Tamil name for gold, and
probably is closely connected with karam, dun.
On turning to Karam in Winslow’s Dictionary, I
find no general adjective karam, but only this very
compound karam pasu, which he states is, “ a
fabulous cow in the world of Indra with the face of
a woman and the wings of a bird,” and secondly,
“ a black cow with a black tongue and udder, being
considered a superior kind,” and he explains this
as karam-pasu, a black cow.
It is clear therefore that the mistake did not
originate with Burnell, but is one that arose among
South Indian pandits who were ignorant of the
colloquial and archaic Dravidian adjective, seen in
Tamil kuruti, Sinhalese guru, usually expleted as
guruwan.
There is an isolated verb in Tamil, “ kara” to
milk, which may perhaps ultimately prove the
source of the myth. Some participle meaning
“milch” or “ milking,” from the same root as Tamil
kara to milk, having become confused with karam,
dun, would readily lead to a change of superstition
from horror of killing a milch cow, near a sacred
river to that of killing a dun cow, near a sacred,
river. If this really be the source of the myth, the
original superstition must come from the same
source as the isolated word kara, to milk.
Karam in Ceylon has never been translated to me
as “black,” and as in India, is only applied to cattle
now.
Editor.
Extracting milk from water, the white egret, a
PROVERB AND MYTH.
There is an old and recognised Tamil proverb, nir
oliyap palun kurukir rerinthu, which means simply
“discriminating nicely,” in its application, though
the literal translation is, “separating milk from
water like the white egret.” Apparently it refers
to a belief that the bird really sucked milk out of
water, and so acquired its milk-white plumage.
This proverb has been adopted into literary Sin-
halese, as “hansaya diyen kiri ura-gannak meni,”
“ like the sacred goose sucking milk from water.”
There is a mistake here, and Europeans have fol-
lowed the Sinhalese precedent, the Tamil word
kuruku being translated hansa, and thence “swan,”
(Winslow, in Tamil Dictionary ; and H. White, in
Orientalist, Vol. I. p. 237).
Kuruku has several meanings, as it has come into
Tamil from several distinct sources. We have a
sense of “young and tender,” as the young white
leaves of a tree or palm, again we have it meaning
“whiteness,” apparently by metathesis from Sans-
krit “gawara,” and then we have it as a tatsama
with Tamil kuruvi, Sinhalese kurulla, a bird, while
THE TAPROBANIAN.
[December, 1887.
fact that the general’s auxiliaries were of various
foreign races, “men of various lands.”
I take it therefore as most probable that Sena IV.
was a visitor to the Court of Dhanga, whether he
died there or returned, and as 998 A.D. is the year
in which'Dhanga died, Sena IV. must have succeeded
as a boy of twelve to his father’s throne shortly
before that date. According to the Sinhalese trans-
lators he acceded at 992 A.D., which thus corres-
ponds.
Dhanga’s grandmother was Kankuta, a princess of
the Ganga family then dominant in Kalinga, but
I cannot ascertain to what family his mother Karma
Devi belonged. The Queen-Mother of Ceylon was
also of the Kalinga family, and her dissolute son, the
titular king of Ceylon, could not have been kept out
of mischief in a better way, than by attending the
court of Dhanga, the suzerain of his kinsfolk. The
relationship through the Gangas accounts for the
interest Rahila and Dhanga took in the affairs of
Ceylon, and for the aid lent to the Senevi Sena.
What share Rahila took in the affairs of Ceylon is
doubtful, as Chand, who says that his victories
extended to Ceylon, is not a very reliable authority.
It is probable he was mixed up in the civil war,
described in the 51st chapter of the Mahawansa,
stanzas 112 to 129.
Editor.
Killing a dun cow on the Ganga bank.
In Tamil grants there occurs a common impreca-
tion upon any person disputing or cancelling the
grant, that he might “ incur the sin of one who
kills a dun cow on the Ganga bank.” I observe
that Burnell on p. 114 of his South Indian Palaeo-
graphy has stated :—“ In later grants the impreca-
tion often is that the violator of it will incur the
same sin as one who kills a black cow on the banks
of the Ganges.”
In this, however, he makes two slight mistakes,
evidently misled by mistaken interpretations of
Indian pandits, of the modern Brahmanic School.
The word Kenkai or Kankai, it is true, does denote
the Ganges, but it is also the name of the Mahawili
Ganga of Ceylon, and may be applied also to the
Godavari. It is, in fact, a name of any “ river,” par
excellence, and might be translated “ a sacred
river” in this context. The other mistake, treating
karam as black, is more serious, and evidently arose
from regarding it as a Sanskrit word. It is how-
ever always understood by Tamils, whom I have
consulted, as indicating “red-brown,” that is
“ dun,” and is a Dravidian word, found in Sinhalese
as “guru,” red-brown, dun, and in Tamil, karal,
karai, rust, blood, as well as black, and thence
in secondary use a stain, a spot; also kuruti, red
blood : kural, dun, tawny, (as of cattle).
These have not any real relationship with kari,
and kari, blackness, and karu, black.
Karam however is a Tamil name for gold, and
probably is closely connected with karam, dun.
On turning to Karam in Winslow’s Dictionary, I
find no general adjective karam, but only this very
compound karam pasu, which he states is, “ a
fabulous cow in the world of Indra with the face of
a woman and the wings of a bird,” and secondly,
“ a black cow with a black tongue and udder, being
considered a superior kind,” and he explains this
as karam-pasu, a black cow.
It is clear therefore that the mistake did not
originate with Burnell, but is one that arose among
South Indian pandits who were ignorant of the
colloquial and archaic Dravidian adjective, seen in
Tamil kuruti, Sinhalese guru, usually expleted as
guruwan.
There is an isolated verb in Tamil, “ kara” to
milk, which may perhaps ultimately prove the
source of the myth. Some participle meaning
“milch” or “ milking,” from the same root as Tamil
kara to milk, having become confused with karam,
dun, would readily lead to a change of superstition
from horror of killing a milch cow, near a sacred
river to that of killing a dun cow, near a sacred,
river. If this really be the source of the myth, the
original superstition must come from the same
source as the isolated word kara, to milk.
Karam in Ceylon has never been translated to me
as “black,” and as in India, is only applied to cattle
now.
Editor.
Extracting milk from water, the white egret, a
PROVERB AND MYTH.
There is an old and recognised Tamil proverb, nir
oliyap palun kurukir rerinthu, which means simply
“discriminating nicely,” in its application, though
the literal translation is, “separating milk from
water like the white egret.” Apparently it refers
to a belief that the bird really sucked milk out of
water, and so acquired its milk-white plumage.
This proverb has been adopted into literary Sin-
halese, as “hansaya diyen kiri ura-gannak meni,”
“ like the sacred goose sucking milk from water.”
There is a mistake here, and Europeans have fol-
lowed the Sinhalese precedent, the Tamil word
kuruku being translated hansa, and thence “swan,”
(Winslow, in Tamil Dictionary ; and H. White, in
Orientalist, Vol. I. p. 237).
Kuruku has several meanings, as it has come into
Tamil from several distinct sources. We have a
sense of “young and tender,” as the young white
leaves of a tree or palm, again we have it meaning
“whiteness,” apparently by metathesis from Sans-
krit “gawara,” and then we have it as a tatsama
with Tamil kuruvi, Sinhalese kurulla, a bird, while